CLIMATE RESILIENCE
A Three-Part Series on Heatstress
This resource addresses Durham’s distinct vulnerabilities by providing tailored, data-driven solutions, which supports equity and promotes community resilience. This page contains links to each section of this series, as well as a glossary of key terms.
Why Does Durham Need This Resource and How Should You Use It?
This section identifies and addresses climate inequities to help Durham advance long-term resilience and promote fair access to opportunities.
How Do We Beat the Heat?
This section focuses on how to combat extreme heat and offers solutions and resources for organizations, policymakers, community members, and more.
Glossary of Key Terms
Below, you'll find scientific terms and sociological concepts that you will see throughout this resource. It is here to help make the rest of the information easier to understand.
For instance, you will read how factors like a lot of concrete and fewer trees in cities can trap heat, causing the “urban heat island effect.” You will also see how discriminatory policies from the past, like redlining, have made some neighborhoods hotter and less prepared for extreme heat.
By understanding these terms, you will get a better sense of why some communities face more heat-related risks than others and how we can work together for solutions that are fair and effective for everyone.
The process through which people, communities, and nature adjust and respond to changes in climate to cope with extreme weather conditions (Definition from UNFCCC).
A long-term change in Earth’s usual weather patters, primarily caused by anthropogenic (human) activities like burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas etc.). Climate Change is the reason why we are now seeing hotter days, stronger storms, and rising sea levels. (Definition from BBC.)
A measurement to see how climate change affects daily temperatures. It helps show how unusually hot days occur more frequently due to climate change. (Definition from Climate Central.)
The ongoing average rise in Earth’s temperatures, mostly due to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (like carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere. Today, we use “climate change” more often because it covers other weather changes too, not just heat. (Definition from USGS.)
Persistent period of unusually hot days. The term also applies to circumstances where heat combines with other factors (maximum temperature, nighttime temperature, and humidity), resulting in unusually high temperatures that are hazardous to human health. (Definition from Heatwave Guide for Cities.)
Also known as the “feels like” temperature, this number tells us how hot it really feels outside when humidity and temperature are combined. Higher humidity makes heat feel worse and makes it harder for people and animals to cool down. (Definition from Defining Extreme Heat as a Hazard.)
When the temperature stays very high (above 90 degrees F in Durham) for two or more days. (Definition from Ready.)
The historical practice of designating some areas of the city as riskier investments and less desirable than other neighborhoods and using that designation to deny access to loans or credit to people who live or want to buy property in those areas, even if the applicants were personally qualified. In the past, mortgage lenders “redlined” core urban neighborhoods and Black-populated neighborhoods specifically, as a then-legally acceptable form of racial discrimination. The 1968 Fair Housing Act outlawed racially motivated redlining. (Definition from Federal Reserve History.)
The ability to prepare for, recover from, and adapt to impacts from climate change. (Definition from C2ES.)
Urban areas tend to be warmer than surrounding suburban or rural areas because urban areas have more concrete structures or hard surfaces and less vegetation and shade. Treeless, breezeless tracts/islands of hot concrete and pavement within cities are known as urban heat islands. Daytime temperatures in urban areas are about 1-7 degrees F higher than the outlying areas, and the nighttime temperatures are about 2-5 degrees F higher. (Definition from The Future We Don't Want.)
Vulnerability to extreme heat depends on physical characteristics like age, chronic medical conditions, some medications that affect how the body deals with heat, and the inability to escape the heat due to socio-economic factors, such as occupation (whether a person works inside or outside), energy equity (if they can afford air conditioning), and housing security (whether people have a place to live). (Definition from NIHHIS.)
A more technical and accurate method of measuring temperature. This method considers how solar radiation and wind speed affect body temperature, on top of air temperature and humidity. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends using the WBGT to protect health at the workplace. (Definition from Defining Extreme Heat as a Hazard.)